[HN Gopher] Omega-3 intake counteracts symptoms of anxiety and d...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Omega-3 intake counteracts symptoms of anxiety and depression in
       mice
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 189 points
       Date   : 2024-09-21 15:31 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.psypost.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.psypost.org)
        
       | elromulous wrote:
       | This is exciting, and should be fairly easy to confirm/deny with
       | a double blind trial in humans. There's no money to be had in it
       | for big pharma, so funding it would have to come from some other
       | means, but it should be possible.
        
         | setting1855 wrote:
         | as opposed to supplement studies in mice, which are notoriously
         | lucrative
        
           | brokensegue wrote:
           | they are cheaper
        
           | elromulous wrote:
           | As the other comment mentions, mouse studies are hilariously
           | cheap compared to human trials. We're talking many orders of
           | magnitude. A couple grad students can do a mouse study at
           | costs very much approaching zero.
        
         | nosefurhairdo wrote:
         | There's already research on Omega 3 supplementation's impact on
         | depression + anxiety symptoms in humans. The results generally
         | show that Omega 3 is roughly as effective as antidepressants,
         | and can be safely taken in addition to antidepressants for an
         | even greater effect.
        
           | petesergeant wrote:
           | Examine.com summary:
           | 
           | > Fish oil supplementation has been noted to be comparable to
           | pharmaceutical drugs (fluoxetine) in majorly depressed
           | persons, but this may be the only cohort that experiences a
           | reduction of depression. There is insufficient evidence to
           | support a reduction of depressive symptoms in persons with
           | minor depression (ie. not diagnosed major depressive
           | disorder)
           | 
           | They give it a B for the research and an effect size of
           | moderate improvement. Also a B with a small effect size for
           | anxiety.
           | 
           | https://examine.com/supplements/fish-oil
           | 
           | I'd note it also says:
           | 
           | > A meta-analysis of 35 small, randomized trials found that
           | fish oil can slightly improve depression when compared to
           | control. However, this improvement may be too small to be
           | noticeable. Also, adding fish oil to antidepressant
           | medication seems to be more beneficial than antidepressant
           | treatment alone
           | 
           | In short, sounds like it's worth throwing in as an adjunct
           | treatment for people wanting to take a kitchen sink approach
        
             | jaggederest wrote:
             | > They give it a B for the research and an effect size of
             | moderate improvement. Also a B with a small effect size for
             | anxiety
             | 
             | To be fair, this is among the most highly rated things on
             | the entire site - let not the "B" scare you off. A moderate
             | effect size is pretty substantial, all things considered.
        
         | RobotToaster wrote:
         | > There's no money to be had in it for big pharma
         | 
         | IIRC there's several patent medicine versions of omega 3 such
         | as icosapent ethyl
        
       | FollowingTheDao wrote:
       | High long chain omega 3 and low omega 6 not only revered my
       | hyperlipidemia (through stimulating reverse cholesterol
       | transport) but notably reduces my symptoms of schizoaffective
       | disorder bipolar type (I am assuming this is through assisting
       | with carecholamine receptor function).
       | 
       | I came to the conclusion this diet would help me by noting the
       | polymorphisms in my FADS1 and FADS2 genes linked to needing more
       | long chain PUFAs.
       | 
       | You might also be interested that omega 3 is responsible for
       | making natural Cannabinoid (endocannabinoids) in humans which
       | could be linked to the lower anxiety.
        
         | wtetzner wrote:
         | Yeah, I've noticed too much Omega 6 is at least one big cause
         | of my anxiety.
         | 
         | Avoiding vegetable oils (and foods that are cooked with it) and
         | just using coconut oil, tallow, butter etc. reduces my anxiety
         | to the point that it's barely noticeable.
        
           | FollowingTheDao wrote:
           | IMHO, Omega 3 increases GABA and Omega 6 increases Glutamate.
           | I am going to guess that if you ever smoked pot that high THC
           | weed makes you severely anxious?
        
             | s__s wrote:
             | Can you elaborate on the connection you're drawing here?
        
       | Trasmatta wrote:
       | Omega 3 supplements are such a wild world. So many low quality
       | ones, so many different types, and so many claims about them
       | being miracle cures (that then don't hold out for later studies).
       | 
       | I have severe chronic dry eye, and omega 3 is one of the first
       | things they recommend. But then in the past 5 or 6 years there
       | have been a bunch of studies that have shown there is no actual
       | measurable effect.
       | 
       | Some people still claim that it helps, but that you have to get
       | it by actually eating Omega 3 rich fish, and not just taking the
       | supplements. Either way, I've never seen any difference with my
       | dry eye symptoms.
        
         | oidar wrote:
         | I have dry eye as well. What have you done that helps? Omega 3
         | didn't do anything for me either.
        
           | FollowingTheDao wrote:
           | I have uveitis and it certainly helped for me. I think what
           | happens is a lot of people don't lower the amount omega 6 and
           | just increase omega-3 by a small amount. It took a drastic
           | reduction in omega 6 for it to help.
        
           | Trasmatta wrote:
           | I'm about 10 years into this, and I've tried many many
           | things. It's all about management now. It really depends on
           | the type of dry eye you have, so I'd recommend seeing a dry
           | eye specialist if you haven't. Getting a meibography done is
           | really important for seeing the state of your glands.
           | 
           | The things that work the best for me currently are Systane
           | Hydration PF eye drops, NuLids, Manuka Honey gel, OcuSoft lid
           | scrubs, moving out of a dry climate, and limiting screen
           | time. Inflammation in general causes it to flare up -- diet,
           | lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, staying up late coding or
           | gaming, all seem to cause inflammation and make it worse for
           | me.
           | 
           | I've also done Restasis, Xiidra, Cequa, IPL, Radio Frequency,
           | warm compresses, and punctal plugs, without much success.
           | 
           | I'd like to try autologous tear serum next.
        
             | calf wrote:
             | I'm doing IPL/RF now which is theorized to help with
             | inflammation, but now I know to be more careful with
             | healthy lifestyle. Too bad this understanding of computer
             | lifestyle and dry eye syndrome was that well explained and
             | emphasizsd 15 years ago.
        
               | Trasmatta wrote:
               | Have you noticed any improvement with IPL/RF? I've done 5
               | sessions - I saw improvement after the first and fourth,
               | but regressed pretty quicky back after a few days. I've
               | heard some people saying they had to do like 10 to start
               | to notice a bigger difference. The problem is it's so
               | expensive (I have to pay $750 for the combo session).
        
             | youniverse wrote:
             | Wow you've tried the whole industry. The only thing I can
             | recommend to you would be to try a brand of drops called
             | Optase, they are more quality and thicker than everything
             | else on the market.
             | 
             | Here's a HN post with a really good top comment that talks
             | about psychological eye strain that really resonated with
             | me, plenty of other advice in there too you might like:
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34518343
             | 
             | Good luck!
        
               | Trasmatta wrote:
               | I haven't tried Optase, but it's worth a shot. Systane
               | Hydration PF has been the best for me, and it is also a
               | lot thicker.
               | 
               | Thank you for the link! It resonates with my experience.
               | I do think there's a psychological aspect of it for me.
               | When I'm depressed or disassociating (which is frequent)
               | it's easy to just stare at a screen and not blink at all.
        
             | ckcheng wrote:
             | That's a lot of different things to consider and try,
             | thanks!
             | 
             | What worked for me was drinking massive amounts of water
             | throughout the day.
             | 
             | Not so much to cause hyponatremia, of course, but it was a
             | cheap easy way to establish a baseline for me (i.e. helps
             | with dry climates, salty foods, dehydration, etc). And
             | yeah, I tried some of those other things too.
        
             | manmal wrote:
             | If Manuka honey has helped, have you considered using other
             | antiseptics or even probiotic eye baths and bacteriophages?
        
             | theropost wrote:
             | I used to have this problem too. Tried prescriptions,
             | systane, hydration eye drops etc etc, but in the end but
             | actually worked was baby shampoo rinsing my eyes twice a
             | day and washing them it took some time but now it's
             | completely gone. But for me I believe it was some sort of
             | blepharitis that was blocking the glands that produced the
             | lubrication my eyes needed, and now that I have a good
             | routine, it appears to have solve the problem.
        
             | theendisney4 wrote:
             | How much water do you drink and do you take extra salt?
        
           | sebmellen wrote:
           | For me, Xiidra combined with once a day Pataday (which
           | actually dries the eye, but for me helped stem inflammation
           | that was harming my ability to form a tear film), plus this
           | iTEAR device (https://olympicophthalmics.com/itear-100/), was
           | incredibly helpful.
           | 
           | I'd also recommend getting a humidifier for each of your main
           | rooms and using distilled water with it.
        
           | cyberax wrote:
           | Perfluorohexyloctane helped me quite a bit. You can ship it
           | from Europe for something like $20 per vial (EvoTears), or
           | get in the US for $700 (Miebo). The vials are literally
           | identical.
        
           | 93po wrote:
           | I cured mine bc I figured out it was related to LPR/reflux
           | which was causing dry eyes along with some other crappy
           | stuff.
        
         | faustlast wrote:
         | Do you get headaches because of your dry eyes? (specifically,
         | after staring at screens for a long time)
        
           | Trasmatta wrote:
           | I generally don't get headaches luckily. When my dry eye was
           | a lot more severe I had to strain to see the screen, and
           | would sometimes get them then. It's better managed now (but
           | still severe).
        
             | theropost wrote:
             | Blepharitis perhaps?
        
         | someothherguyy wrote:
         | It is suspect to me that a lot of waste products end up being
         | pushed as supplements. Also, there is a swath of junk science
         | associated with nutrition publishing.
        
           | lambdaba wrote:
           | It's used in TBI, see Dr. Barry Sears for some accounts.
           | 
           | "Fish oil helped save our son"
           | https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/19/health/fish-oil-brain-
           | inj...
           | 
           | > Most of the studies about omega-3 for traumatic brain
           | injury are in animals, but they indicate potential for
           | healing the human brain.
           | 
           | > After a trauma, the brain tends to swell, and the
           | connections between some nerve cells can become damaged,
           | while other cells simply die.
           | 
           | > National Institutes of Health research suggests that
           | omega-3 fatty acids may inhibit cell death and could be
           | instrumental for reconnecting damaged neurons.
           | 
           | > Another recent study revealed genes that are activated to
           | contain massive damage - especially inflammation - when the
           | brain is injured. What activates those genes: omega-3.
           | 
           | > "We have strong data that suggest omega-3 will activate
           | good proteins to cope with brain damage and turn off proteins
           | that cause neuroinflammation," said Dr. Nicolas Bazan,
           | director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU
           | Health in New Orleans and author of the study.
           | 
           | > Bailes consulted with a fish oil expert and eventually
           | decided that administering 20 grams a day of omega-3 fish oil
           | through a feeding tube might repair the myelin sheath. (For
           | comparison: A typical supplemental dose for someone with an
           | uninjured brain is about 2 grams a day.)
        
             | hirvi74 wrote:
             | TBI is a wide spectrum of conditions akin to "trauma" in
             | psychological terms.
             | 
             | I skimmed the article, but I didn't see any specific
             | medical terms used. The reason I am curious is because I do
             | not think that mTBI like concussions cause brain swelling
             | since the injury is more of a functional injury than a
             | structural injury.
             | 
             | I like to play ice hockey as an adult, and I try to do
             | everything reasonably possible to protect my brain from
             | vulcanized rubber disks flying at my head at 0 < x 100 mph.
             | Perhaps I will add some fish oil back into my diet. I
             | already uses Lion's Mane, but I am not sure if it truly
             | does anything, but I love the taste of the product I use,
             | so I will continue to use it regardless. Not sure if I have
             | ever had a "real" concussion, but definitely some ringers.
        
               | lambdaba wrote:
               | Sorry, this was just a quick search, I first heard about
               | this from Dr. Barry Sears, and he had several accounts of
               | miraculous recovery with massive doses of fish oil (20g+)
        
           | Etheryte wrote:
           | This is incredibly common with things such as fungi, which
           | are known to have numerous benefits across a wide body of
           | studies. The catch is that most of the supplements are just
           | filler, leftover parts you can't use for much else e.g.
           | ground up stem or even growth medium that has little to
           | nothing in it.
        
         | FollowingTheDao wrote:
         | > Omega 3 supplements are such a wild world.
         | 
         | That's why you should get it from seafood and grass fed mammals
         | (if you need long chain PUFAs) or flaxseed (if you need short
         | chain PUFAs).
         | 
         | There are probably many other things in seafood that co-exist
         | with Omega 3 for a reason.
        
         | lambdaba wrote:
         | I've researched trustworthy brands a lot, the ones I settled on
         | are Nootropics Depot, Viva Naturals and Nordic Naturals. I
         | prefer those with only Vit E as preservative.
        
           | AbstractH24 wrote:
           | What led you to settle on these?
        
             | lambdaba wrote:
             | - Nootropics Depot because I know the owner (online) and
             | they do rigorous testing
             | 
             | - Viva Naturals from recommendations and testing (Labdoor)
             | 
             | - Nordic Naturals is a well-known premium brand
             | 
             | frankly I haven't documented, these are just some things
             | out of the top my head
        
         | tharmas wrote:
         | Have you tried Lutein?
        
         | l5870uoo9y wrote:
         | Another important aspect regarding supplements; so few are
         | tested for how well they are absorbed by human digestion.
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
         | It's amazing the lengths some people will go to avoid eating
         | fish.
        
           | naitgacem wrote:
           | Fish can be prohibitively expensive even in parts of the
           | world with access to large amounts of seashorres. Think:
           | North Africa.
        
         | Beijinger wrote:
         | I think there is a Russian medicine for dry eye: Visomitin
         | 
         | But I remember a study that claimed it does not work. Also, may
         | be currently hard to get.
        
         | ahallock wrote:
         | There are conflicting studies, but recently, it was determined
         | you need adequate vitamin B levels to support omega-3.
         | 
         | As an aside, you can definitely over-dose on omega-3 which can
         | cause afib, and increase your chance of stroke. I was taking 2
         | grams per day and definitely had arrhythmia issues. Decreasing
         | the dosage to 500mg per day eliminated the arrhythmia.
        
           | dmix wrote:
           | Didn't know that was possible with Omega 3. The pills I have
           | are 660mg and recommends 1 per day, seems you took about 3.5x
           | that dose
           | 
           | By the way, how can you detect arrhythmia? Blood pressure
           | monitor or Apple Watch? General feeling?
        
       | maxresdefault wrote:
       | This is great, but why does Omega 3 paradoxically reduce
       | expression of dopamine receptors and dopamine release
        
         | FollowingTheDao wrote:
         | Because it makes the dopamine more effective.
        
         | daniel_reetz wrote:
         | The dopamine hypothesis is being heavily debated and revisited
         | these days. Might be worth checking any assumptions against
         | current research.
        
       | nightmonkey wrote:
       | Does caffeine intake nullify this effect?
        
       | cultofmetatron wrote:
       | This definitely tracks with my experience. I take a tablespoon of
       | cod liver oil daily and I've definitely noticed a complete
       | flatlining of my emotional states. My baseline is just basic
       | calmness and a general lack of "monkeymind"/intrusive thoughts.
       | Really amazed its not a more prescribed treatment.
        
         | alberth wrote:
         | Cod is super high in Vitamin D, and considered by many
         | historians the secret food that contributed to Vikings success.
         | 
         | https://goodness-exchange.com/cod-vikings-vitamin-d/
        
           | Beijinger wrote:
           | Cod is super high in Vitamin A too and I would be worried
           | about your liver.
        
         | Trasmatta wrote:
         | Does it also flatline your positive emotions? Ashwaganda does a
         | similar thing for a lot of people, it tamps down their anxiety
         | and depression but suppresses most other emotions as well (it's
         | called anhedonia).
        
           | cultofmetatron wrote:
           | I would definitely say so. I can still feel happy if I choose
           | to but I don't feel upward swings. Overall I'd say its a net
           | positive as I generally feel content.
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | It didn't affect me at all when I took it for a few years. No
         | noticeable positive or negative effect.
        
         | aucisson_masque wrote:
         | used to drink cod liver oil daily, then i learned how it's
         | processed... I would advise just taking vitamin d pill and
         | eating 2 to 3 times a week fat fish.
         | 
         | About cod liver oil manufacturing :
         | https://www.rositausa.com/cdn/shop/articles/Rosita-Postcard-...
         | 
         | Everything is so polluted that either you're drinking oil that
         | contains plastics and chemicals, or you're drinking an oil that
         | has been completely destroyed and rebuilt using vitamin D, A
         | and omega 3 from third party manufacturer.
        
           | dmix wrote:
           | Any particular types of fish or sources of that fish fat?
        
       | mmanfrin wrote:
       | Well this is a great thing to see an hour after buying some O3s.
       | 
       | I have read though that omega-3 _supplements_ seem to not do
       | much, it 's the intake of them dietarily that show results, I'm
       | not sure how current that research is. I've also read that algae
       | as a source might be better? There's a tremendous amount of
       | conflicting information.
        
         | oarfish wrote:
         | > I have read though that omega-3 supplements seem to not do
         | much
         | 
         | afaik that holds for a lot (if not most) commonly used
         | supplements (vitamins are another popular offender). Sometimes
         | the reason is the food matrix effect, where just isolated
         | nutrients are not as beneficial as when they are consumed along
         | with other nutrients. Sometimes (like vitamin D or
         | testosterone), the biomarker is reflective of health status,
         | not predictive.
         | 
         | From this [1] podcast (2y old at this point) I too seem to
         | remember that it doesn't do much most of the time, that
         | supplements are generally untrustworthy w.r.t. dosing and
         | purity and there's also a slight chance of giving yourself
         | afib.
         | 
         | 1. https://soundcloud.com/user-344313169/episode-193-fish-oil
        
       | reubensutton wrote:
       | There's never been a better time to be a mouse
        
         | CatWChainsaw wrote:
         | Right up until any given study with mice concludes...
        
         | atombender wrote:
         | Or a worse one. I know you're making a joke, but it doesn't
         | seem that funny to me -- U.S. biomedical industry goes through
         | about 111 million lab mice and rats each year [1]. Most mice
         | lives are short and cruel, living their entire lives in tiny
         | plastic boxes and often subjected to horrific experiences. We
         | should be more thankful.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-
         | ra...
        
           | hirvi74 wrote:
           | I really appreciate that someone else shares my opinions on
           | this matter. It pains me what we do to animals for our
           | benefit. I suppose there is no other alternative, but that
           | does not diminish the cruelty.
           | 
           | I feel the same way about the "Boar's Head" meat recall in
           | the US due to Listeria. 7 million pounds of meat must be
           | disposed of. That means every single one of the pigs died for
           | that meat died for absolutely nothing at all. It just doesn't
           | sit right with me.
        
         | PlattypusRex wrote:
         | This isn't funny. Mice and rats are among the most intelligent
         | animals used in research, and despite ethical regulations on
         | their treatment, they are often ignored. Many of these animals
         | endure severe procedures without adequate pain relief, or none
         | at all. This widespread suffering also causes mental health
         | problems for many of the researchers who have to regularly
         | euthanize them. These animals sacrifice their lives to improve
         | human health and well-being. At the very least, we should show
         | respect for their pain and suffering, which is undertaken for
         | our benefit.
        
         | ahallock wrote:
         | Have they made any mice immortal yet (with continuous
         | treatments of stem cells and other therapies)?
        
       | voytec wrote:
       | "Omega-3" is as vague and underdescriptive term as "marihuana".
       | We're better educated now and we can focus on the
       | eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) where
       | it comes to Omega 3. And we can point at THC, CBN, CBD or any of
       | the 100+ other cannabinoids present in cannabis flowers when we
       | describe "marihuana", "weed" or "pot".
       | 
       | And there's a reason behind my local pharmacy offering THC-
       | focused or CBD-focused pot, and my local supplements store
       | offering DHA-focused and EPA-focused softgels, produced by the
       | same company and under the same brand. How these these products
       | act varies by active substances content and the person. Both
       | "Omega 3" and "marihuana" are dumbed-down terms, meaningless when
       | it comes to studies or papers.
       | 
       | There's a ton of studies on nih.gov about EPA's potential as an
       | antidepressant, misaligned with DHA-related articles on the
       | subject, that I could link. But I can say - purely anecdotally -
       | that I removed psypost.org feed from my RSS reader a few months
       | after ChatGPT became public.
        
         | orblivion wrote:
         | I had been under the mistaken impression that DHA was only
         | interesting inasmuch as your body inefficiently turns it into
         | EPA.
        
           | adrian_b wrote:
           | DHA and EPA have distinct roles in the body.
           | 
           | Both are necessary for most people, especially for males and
           | for older people, because the inter-conversions between the
           | various omega-3 fatty acids are done inefficiently by humans.
           | 
           | The other omega-3 fatty acids do not have known functions,
           | except as sources of DHA and EPA, after an enzymatic
           | conversion.
        
         | derefr wrote:
         | I think there's a practical distinction between the kind of
         | term "omega-3" is vs the kind of term "marijuana" is.
         | 
         | You mostly only find THC/CBD/etc _in_ marijuana; and we mostly
         | only consume marijuana to get those particular active
         | ingredients into our bodies. So you can forget about
         | "marijuana" as a category for describing those compounds, and
         | just speak of the compounds themselves -- measure marijuana
         | strains by the presence of those active ingredients; extract
         | and purify one particular active ingredient and sell it; etc.
         | Doing this doesn't lose you anything; in fact, it's a pure win,
         | as the use of precise language gives people a tool to leverage
         | to more precisely ask for the effect they're looking for, and
         | gives suppliers a tool to more precisely describe what they're
         | selling.
         | 
         | While the omega-3 constituent compounds _can_ be treated this
         | way, they are not _solely_ a thing we extract or synthesize to
         | put in precise-molarity-per-dose pills; they 're _also_ a thing
         | found _in food_. Many different foods; with most of them being
         | foods people eat for reasons _beyond_ just getting omega-3s in
         | their bodies. In other words, the  "omega-3" constituent
         | compounds are _nutrients_.
         | 
         | And many of these omega-3-containing foods -- fish, for example
         | -- aren't carefully cultivated species that have known ratios
         | of the omega-3 constituent compounds that could be put on the
         | label of the food-product. Rather, the ratio of those
         | constituent compounds is pretty much random per individual food
         | item. One salmon at the grocery store has omega-3 fats which
         | happen to be high in DHA, while the next salmon beside it in
         | the same cooler display is higher in EPA. All you can _in
         | general_ about a food product -- all a supplier can say, and
         | all a _food_ shopper can generally expect to look for -- is a
         | food that is  "high in omega-3s."
         | 
         | As long as people are interested in optimizing their health in
         | a loose manner by eating "healthful foods" -- rather than
         | taking specifically-formulated supplements -- I don't expect
         | they'll let go of the generic categorical term "omega-3." When
         | it comes to _food_ , "it contains omega-3s" is almost always
         | the tightest bound you can put on the "nutritional value" of a
         | given food.
        
           | sheepdestroyer wrote:
           | I'm not so sure about the incertitude you speak of about
           | omega-3s content and ratios in food.
           | 
           | In fact while in Japan I used to specifically select my bags
           | of dried sardine (niboshi) and mackerel cans by the content
           | of EPA and DHA, clearly indicated in mg per 100g. Every such
           | products had these indications with content varying by
           | brands.
           | 
           | I guess that if you master your process you can ensure and
           | advertise a consistent quality.
        
             | derefr wrote:
             | Processed fish products are a bit different from a large
             | chunk of a single fish, in terms of the promises that can
             | be made.
             | 
             | The problem with large, wild-caught fish, is that different
             | fish are going to be living in slightly-different regions,
             | or migrating through given regions at slightly-different
             | times, and so eating different things; and so will have
             | more or less of any given nutrient coming from those things
             | in their bodies.
             | 
             | If you're catching large swarms/schools of fish, all the
             | fish _in_ a given school will be mostly identical in their
             | nutritional content. And so, if you 're doing some bulk
             | operation like canning or drying, and you're doing it on
             | fish that swarm/school and get caught as whole
             | swarms/schools (such as sardine or mackerel) -- then, for
             | each catch delivered to your plant by a fishing vessel, you
             | can take a few samples from that catch to get a sense of
             | the average micronutrient values of that catch; and then
             | you can store these catches separately, _titrating
             | together_ the different catches into each processed
             | mixture, to achieve the a steady nutritional value in the
             | result. (This is roughly the same thing that e.g. orange
             | juice companies do with the truckloads of oranges they buy
             | to achieve a consistent output juice product.)
             | 
             | But if you're just buying e.g. one salmon, then it came
             | through an entirely different logistics pipeline to get to
             | you -- either an "independent" one where a small-time
             | fisherman sold some fish directly to a local fishmonger,
             | who then sold it directly to a local grocer, a few fish at
             | a time; or a "big chain" one where a stream of flash-frozen
             | fish from fishing vessels is being just-in-time streamed
             | out to various grocery stores. (This lack of a fan-in
             | processing step for raw large fish is also why grocers end
             | up with so much mislabelled fish; the guy who works at a
             | fish processing plant near the fishery will recognize all
             | the fish that fishery tends to pull out of the water; but
             | there's no similar expert in the meat department of a
             | random grocery store in Idaho -- in fact, that person might
             | not even know which fishery the fish they're receiving came
             | from!)
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | The specific supplement used in this research [0] was equal
         | parts DHA and EPA (no ALA, which is the third main Omega-3.)
         | Determining whether the effect is specific to one of the
         | Omega-3's or general to the class would be an expected subject
         | of further research, as would seeing if the effect holds
         | outside of the lab mice model.
         | 
         | There's a whole lot of work between this study and anything
         | actionable other than for planning further research to confirm
         | and better understand the effect, and whatever more general
         | problems psypost.com may have, reporting the source of the
         | effect as "Omega-3" is both consistent with the paper and not
         | overly general given the actual facts.
         | 
         | [0] Linked from the story, but:
         | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235228952...
        
         | dmix wrote:
         | Asked gpt to summarize studies on pill quality for omega 3
         | 
         | > A study published in JAMA (2015) analyzed 47 popular fish oil
         | supplements and found that around 70% of them did not contain
         | the amount of omega-3 fatty acids listed on their labels. Many
         | had lower concentrations of EPA and DHA than advertised.
         | 
         | > Another study from New Zealand in 2014 found that 83% of fish
         | oil supplements contained less omega-3 than claimed on the
         | label, sometimes by as much as 90% less than advertised.
         | 
         | I've seen "professional" branded lines of these supplements.
         | I've wondered if they were actually held to a high
         | manufacturing standard or it's just marketing to set a higher
         | price
        
         | QuantumGood wrote:
         | High quality EPA was the only thing that universally worked for
         | a family member with depression. Tried changing sources one
         | time and felt the difference in about 2 days. Got back on the
         | previous source and back out of depression.
        
       | dukeofdoom wrote:
       | Anxiety and depressions are feelings. Eating feels good for a
       | little bit. But I could easily make the claim that getting a dog
       | and taking it for regular walks in nature counteracts symptoms of
       | anxiety and depression. Doing Yoga with synchronized
       | breathing...same Taking a hot bath, a sauna session, a massage,
       | sex, a long list. Why do so many people think eating something is
       | the path to good health.
       | 
       | Also knowing how things are encoded in neural networks, where
       | it's a combination of variables that sets off some behaviour. Why
       | do Scientists still persist on trying to isolate a single
       | variable.
        
         | FollowingTheDao wrote:
         | I take it you were never in a psychiatric hospital with people
         | urging you to get ECT?
         | 
         | I was. Hot baths don't work, but that's just me. Blanket
         | recommendations are useless and harmful. It turns out I have a
         | genetic issue causing my mood issues and diet is my treatment.
        
           | dukeofdoom wrote:
           | By all means, eat as much healthy food as you can afford. But
           | whatever caused your psychiatric problems, it couldn't have
           | been food. Unless you're so poor that you severely
           | malnourished, or you're eating something severely toxic. And
           | even then, lots of places in this world with malnourished
           | populations that are not depressed.
           | 
           | Improving the quality of your life is not just food. It's all
           | the other things that go into it. Like autonomy, sense of
           | security, friends, social status, finances, physical activity
           | levels, etc.
           | 
           | So be sure to look after improving those things too.
           | 
           | And my suggestion for walking a dog, is a simple and
           | practical suggestion for something that will get you both
           | companionship and exercise.
           | 
           | From personal experience, quitting smoking helped with
           | anxiety. That longing feeling for a cigarette was making me
           | anxious, and that feeling would persist even after having
           | one. So quitting was helpful. But again, smoking is not
           | eating.
        
             | FollowingTheDao wrote:
             | > By all means, eat as much healthy food as you can afford.
             | But whatever caused your psychiatric problems, it couldn't
             | have been food
             | 
             | Are there purines, like Inosine and Guanosine, in food?
             | 
             | Did you even ask what my genetic disorder is?
        
               | dukeofdoom wrote:
               | I'm always open to learning things I don't know about ...
               | go on
        
               | FollowingTheDao wrote:
               | Cool.
               | 
               | I have a Partial PNP Deficiency that makes it harder for
               | me to break down Inosine and Guanosine (and xanthine). My
               | PNP enzyme only functions at about 12% of most "normal"
               | people.
               | 
               | Image: https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/538247/
               | fimmu-11-0...
               | 
               | Paper on the topic: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/
               | immunology/articles/10....
               | 
               | So how does food affect me?
               | 
               | They use Inosine (Inosinic acid) and Guanosine (Guanylic
               | acid) in foods as a food additives to increase the umami.
               | 
               | https://www.eurofins.com/media-centre/newsletters/food-
               | newsl...
               | 
               | These are also found naturally in many foods:
               | https://www.umamiinfo.com/richfood/
               | 
               | When I eat these foods I cannot break these purines down
               | and they not only cause mood issues but also an immune
               | deficiency.
               | 
               | Purinergic System Dysfunction is linked to mood
               | disorders:
               | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4262688/
               | 
               | After going on a low specific purine diet I no longer
               | need any of the three psychiatric medications I was on
               | but for klonopin since there are some triggers I cannot
               | avoid.
               | 
               | Food did this. Food and having a good doctor who did not
               | give up on me. Food and knowing what my genetics are. I
               | get that some people might benefit from Yoga, etc, but to
               | serve a blanket statement like that is just ignorant of
               | the genetic and environmental diversity of humanity. I
               | have these genetics because I have Sami heritage and I am
               | adapted to live in a cold climate and eating low purine,
               | high zinc foods. Zinc also helps me break down the
               | purines by stimulating LACC1, which is a sort of PNP
               | backup. A zinc deficiency when I was young left me with
               | an undecended testicle because of my LACC1 genetics.
               | 
               | https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q8IV20/entry
        
               | seper8 wrote:
               | Super interesting, thanks for sharing
        
               | jaggederest wrote:
               | Thank you for posting the genetic polymorphism, makes it
               | much easier to cross reference. Glad you've found an
               | answer!
        
         | ec109685 wrote:
         | Allergies are a thing. Why is it hard to believe that certain
         | types of food affect people in specific ways?
        
       | readyplayernull wrote:
       | On a related topic, I started taking bacopa monnieri and it
       | improved my memory and mental endurance, anxiety and depression.
       | I gave it to my wife and had the totally opposite effect:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacopa_monnieri
       | 
       | Also I can drink coffee and won't make any effect on my sleep,
       | while my wife gets the boost. I wouldn't be surprised the effects
       | of all those supplements depend on your body chemistry.
       | 
       | They can't differentiate the population, so all these studies
       | will average zero.
        
         | huuhee3 wrote:
         | Yep, what works for one may not work for others. Some people
         | find L-theanine supplement helpful for reducing anxiety. For me
         | it kind of worked, but then gave bad anxiety as a withdrawal
         | symptom.
        
         | crucialfelix wrote:
         | Bacopa Monnieri aka Brahmi has been very effective to eliminate
         | mental turbulence for me. It has a calming, sharp, bitter
         | effect. It's like it's cleaning something up. If my mind is
         | overactive in bed at night I take Brahmi and I quickly feel
         | settled.
        
         | DrBenCarson wrote:
         | Are you measuring your vitals during sleep with a watch or a
         | ring? Might not be affecting your ability to fall asleep but
         | hard to imagine it does nothing to your brain or heart while
         | you're unconscious
        
       | meindnoch wrote:
       | When I took omega-3 in addition to duloxetine, I got terrible
       | brain zaps the whole day.
        
         | scellus wrote:
         | That's interesting, zaps are a withdrawal syndrome of SSRIs
         | (and duloxetine).
        
           | meindnoch wrote:
           | Yep. That's where I knew brain zaps from, because I
           | previously experienced them when coming off SSRIs.
        
             | seper8 wrote:
             | I had them after an accidental too big MDMA dose, after
             | which I felt depressed for a few weeks.
        
       | dukeofdoom wrote:
       | Just instruct your personal chef to include more organic eggs, to
       | cure your ego problem, and you'll feel better. Great news for
       | anyone that partied with P.diddy
        
       | fredgrott wrote:
       | It should not be title Omega-3!
       | 
       | The article clearly States Omega-3, 8, and Omega-9!
        
       | hereme888 wrote:
       | Why are we still looking at mice studies for such a human-used
       | substance?
       | 
       | This study used EPA: 0.55 mg/kg/day, and DHA: 0.55 mg/kg/day.
       | 
       | Among the largest I've heard in human studies are things like
       | 4,400mg EPA and 2,200mg DHA.
       | 
       | Examine.com is one of the best resources to understand what
       | evidence shows about supplements.
       | 
       | EPA appears to be the component that works for depression.
       | 
       | Also, important these days, is the quality: it should be filtered
       | from heavy metals, and processed and stored in a way that avoids
       | it going rancid by the time you consume it.
       | 
       | I strongly believe in the benefits of having a higher
       | omega-3:omega-6 ratio than is common nowadays.
        
         | mattnewton wrote:
         | > Once the behavioral tests were completed, the mice were
         | killed, and their blood and tissues were analyzed to assess the
         | biological effects of stress and omega-3 supplementation.
         | 
         | I think they are trying to show biological causes by carefully
         | controlling the mice's entire life and then cracking them open
         | at the end of the study. Can't really do that with humans.
        
         | ahallock wrote:
         | You have to be careful with such high doses over a long period
         | of time. It can cause heart arrhythmia.
        
       | genewitch wrote:
       | There's a study about omega3 supplementation that says that if
       | children in a family supplement it, that the parents have a
       | better relationship, even if they don't supplement. I can
       | probably dig it out, given enough time with a search engine.
       | 
       | Another one is D. over the course of three years i managed to
       | help my wife get above 100ng/ml 25-hydroxy-D on a blood test. Of
       | course every doctor called and said "too high" and her Calcium is
       | too high too, but not from the D3, folks, because she takes K2
       | Mk7. Her calcium is high because she mostly drinks fortified
       | orange juice _and_ was taking 1200mg calcium per day at the
       | direction of her oncologist. She has a lot of chronic issues and
       | we 're slowly trying to mitigate everything possible with diet
       | and supplements. The specialist said "stop calcium immediately"
       | and "reduce D for 1 month" only. for those aware her Ca was 10.9
       | ("good" range is ~9.0 - 10.2). I guarantee that her calcium will
       | go back to normal because of the K2 between now and her next
       | blood panel. _note_ : they don't actually test D levels unless
       | you ask, in general. One might wonder why that is - i know i
       | certainly do.
       | 
       | In fact, i was just about to go to the pharmacy to get Omega-3
       | supplements when i saw this post. Her chart shows that she _must_
       | supplement omega 3, since she won 't eat baked salmon. My kid
       | already has vitamins with omegas in them.
       | 
       | What i recommend is actually reading studies - completely - and
       | if you have any questions or doubts, befriend researchers in
       | biology or other life sciences that can skim the paper and tell
       | you "meh" or "hey that's cool". Studies contradict, studies may
       | have bad inputs or methodology, the only way to know for sure is
       | to read as many as you can as thoroughly as you can, and if
       | possible, consult experts. Medical doctors of the "PCP"
       | persuasion are _not_ experts, generally.
        
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